The great Leopard experience is continuing, with only a couple of things noted tonight.

First, Genuine Fractals refuses to take an update. I can get the original software installed, but it refuses to allow any of the updates to be applied. So far, there’s not much info popping up on this one, although I’m watching closely.

The second had to do with some of my Nik Software filters. They used fonts rendered so poorly that it was impossible to use the filters — I couldn’t read the menus. Fortunately, Nik has posted a workaround, although I’m not sure I like it. The workaround is to change the smoothing model for the entire system to CRT (instead of automatic, which works quite well for my dual flat panels). I’m really hoping that someone at Nik figures out a patch for this, ’cause I’d rather be using my system the way it was intended, instead of munging up the fonts. At least they got me up and running though.

More to come, I’m sure!

So, I had two goals for tonight — to get my wireless broadband working on the MacBook, and to get printing working ‘twixt the Quad and the R1800. I’ve accomplished one, practically without thinking.

So, for those of you who’ve done a clean install of Leopard, it appears (at least on my MacBook) that you’ve already done everything you need to do to get the Novatel U720 working. Seriously. I plugged it in, and it just worked. No drivers, no configuration, no nothing. I felt like Janie Porsche at Christmas.

OK, so this is a riot….. Take a look at this website, and see how Windows machines are shown in CoverFlow. This really rocks!

Although it’s not getting any media play, there’s a bright wanderer in the sky that has literally cropped up out of nowhere.

Comet Holmes (officially Comet 17P/Holmes) has been known for a while, and until a few nights ago, it was quiet, extremely faint, and of no real note. However, late last week, it jumped in magnitude from about mag 17 to about 2.5 — naked eye territory. And in fact, you can find it easily in Perseus as of this writing. Even the bright moon is not hindering it.

It’s a weird one though. My understanding is that it is on the far side of the sun from us, and since a comet’s tail grows away from the sun, we get our view of the comet as a “head on” perspective. So, no real tail as viewed from Earth, but instead, it looks a gigantic fuzzball. It’s been very cool to watch, so last night I figured I’d take my 40D and my seldom-used Celestron 750mm f/6 lens out.

It was a cold night, and that seemed to help with the shooting. It’s obvious that I didn’t have the focus quite right, but this stack of fifteen shots, each 2 seconds in length, ain’t a bad capture of what the little snowball looked like. You can clearly see the nucleus, and plenty of shiny stuff around it.

Enjoy!

A real football game, depending on what part of the world you live in, is being held at Wembley Stadium in the UK, and I’m sure that lots of folks are getting to watch it. It’s the first regular season NFL game held outside the US. However, if you’re in St. Louis, you’d better like infomercials, ’cause that’s all that’s on Fox.

See, the Rams can’t seem to sell out their home games, which means we don’t to see them. Not a big deal — with no wins on the season, there’s not much to watch most Sundays. But apparently, that means we are also excluded from seeing any of the games Fox is showing in the early timeslot. Which means that St. Louis gets to miss out on watching a history-making NFL game.

I don’t get the politics of broadcasting and sports. It’s almost as though the NFL is saying, “St. Louis, since you can’t sell out your own game, we’ll show you and not let you see any game during that slot. Bwaaaah-haaa-haa-haa.”

Good thing there’s a NASCAR race today!

FedEx just dropped the carton in my hands, and now my day of work is ahead of me. I fully expect to spend a fair part of the day doing the upgrade and working through the issues, if there are some.

(BTW, the FedEx dude said that they are delivering a ton of these today. I guess the delivery date problem I experienced weren’t unique to just me!)

In truth, I think the longest piece of this will be all the necessary backup activity needed to pull this off safely. I’m not planning to upgrade the server, so it’ll be around while I do the upgrades. I’ll just add comments to this post as I go through the process… Enjoy the ride!

The good news from FedEx is that at 8.14am, my carton of Leopard is on the truck from Earth City, and headed my way.

Woo-hoo!

So Beck and I went down to the Global Release soirée at the Des Peres Apple Store tonight. I didn’t exactly dress in my most geekly for the occasion, but neither did anyone else. I dunno what I was expecting, but part of what I was expecting was probably some folks to be over the top. As it ends up, folks were generally friendly, excited and fascinated with the experience. I’m not sure what the other folks at the mall were thinking though. There were many questions — ya know, once you see a line, it’s just human nature to try to figure out if it’s worth standing in, ’cause if that many folks are standing in line, there must be something good at the end of it, right? The folks I felt bad for were the casual shoppers who wanted to visit the Apple Store to pick up something ordinary, not realizing they’d picked a bad day to casually visit the store.

As best as I can figure, we were about 150 folks deep in the line when we strolled up around 5.30 (the event was to begin at 6pm), and by the time the doors opened, there was easily another 50 folks behind us. I suspect there were some folks who camped out through the day, as there were plenty of folks with backpacks, laptops and gear to make their stay more comfortable.

Just minutes before the doors opened, the staff was taking pictures of the very orderly crowd, and the crowd was reciprocating, shooting photos — and some video — of the experience. After a 10-down-to-1 countdown, the doors opened and the crowd was let in a few at a time, with some throttling to ensure there wasn’t too big a throng in the store at any given time. I’d guess that we were inside by 6.15 or 6.30, with the line stretching back at least as far as where we joined it, which would put the crowd at easily 300 folks, and probably more.

Beck and I each got a free T-shirt, although each of them are a little smaller than we’d prefer. I guess the folks that procured the shirts weren’t real familiar with the average shirt size of their die-hard customers!

I’ve gotta say that I was very impressed with playing with Leopard in the store. Visually, it’s just flat amazing, and it seems like there’s plenty of new features to keep folks like me busy for a while. I’m sure it’ll take a while to figure out how best to use these new features, and I’m sure it’ll be fun to play with all the newness….

…once my copy of Leopard arrives. According to FedEx, there’s no new status since it left Memphis around lunchtime. Bummer!

BTW, there was a really good Diesel Sweeties comic today that flung a barb at the release event tonight. Way funny.

Today is the global release of OS X 10.5, AKA “Leopard”. There’s been talk about this release for many months, along with some gnashing of teeth that the release was rumoured to be delayed due to realignment of resources to finish the iPhone on time. From everything I’ve read so far, this sure looks like a real nice upgrade to the OS. Of course, there are folks that are curious why there’s so much hoopla for a dot-release, but with Apple, dot-releases seem to be more like major releases. There’s a ton of changes, additional functionality and lots of “prettiness” added.

My copy is pre-ordered, and per the Apple pre-order info, it’s supposed to be waiting for me when I get home today. However, FedEx reports that the box is just leaving Memphis this morning, with a delivery date of tomorrow. Not the end of the world, but I really wanted to get started tonight!!!

Instead of dashing home tonight to possible shipping disappointment, I plan to go to the global release event at one of our Apple stores. I’ve never been to something like that, and I thought it might be interesting. I plan to take a few photos (surprise, surprise), and revel in the geekstosterone that that will be flowing by the bucketload. Aside from just soaking up the ambiance of a rock-n-roll style event, I actually wanna see some of the demos of Leopard, and see if there’s anything I can learn before I start my upgrades.

The only upgrade-related thing I’m kinda concerned about is the print driver for my Epson R1800. When I checked over the weekend, a Leopard driver was not yet available for my printer — one was posted yesterday however. I’ve gotta figure out whether this new driver works well, and if the print quality is appropriate. So, there’s a little experimentation on the docket for this weekend.

Beck’s gone most of the weekend to an gal-pal slumber party, so I’m sure I’ll have plenty of opportunity to play. Stay tuned for more as I go through the upgrade and testing process!

So, I was sitting in my cube, minding my own business this morning. I’d sent out a blurb to the team about some apple fritters (from The Donut Palace of Ellisville — wonderful people, fritters, Douwe Egberts coffee), and folks were starting to congregate.

And that’s when one of the storage guys brought a little plate of what appeared to be coffee creamers. “You should try one of these… they’re good….” So I willingly took one, and started to read the label.

Not for those under 18, pregnant or caffeine-sensitive.

Warning: high caffeine.

I was intrigued, poured it in my Douwe, and that’s how I was introduced to Stok. Stok is a shot of espresso for your coffee, containing 40mg of caffeine, although you can also get it with sweetner added for a little extra kick. And all I can say is… wow. Tastes great, and really seems to bolster the coffee’s effect.

And their website is a riot, complete with some video content, recipes, and a store from which you can order this stuff for home use. Well worth checking out.

Between my Cocoa Pebbles, my coffee, the fritters and this new evil coffee additive, I can safely say that my tender little noggin is doing its best to spin off axis, and detatch itself from my neck. And I’m kinda enjoying that!